Nobody Knows

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Starring: Yûya Yagira
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Hirokazu Koreeda
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: 2005-09-13
Running Time: 141 minutes
Based on true events that shocked Japan, this story of abandoned siblings is a "harrowing, tender film" (The New York Times) that "unfolds with leisurely beauty" (LA Weekly). Filmed over a year and featuring a performance by 12-year-old Yagira Yuya that won the Best Actor prize at the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival, this "haunting" (Newsday) tale is "heartbreakingly brilliant" (The Boston Globe). A childlike mother of four sneaks her children into their new apartment as if it were a game. One of the game’s rules is that only Akira, the oldest, can go outside. Their mother leaves, first for a month, then possibly forever. As the money runs out and the utilities are shut off, Akira struggles to take care of his brother and sisters, determined that they stay safe and together.

Bleak, subtly beautiful, full of heart
Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai) is based on a true story of children left on their own for months on end to fend for themselves in a Tokyo apartment. Cautioned to remain hidden, as the landlord only knew about one child instead of four, the three younger ones constantly stay inside, away from any contact with the rest of the world.

I was struck by several things about this film. First, what may be a cultural difference between Japan and America - the gentleness and slowness of their lives' rhythms, down to the way the children put books into the shelf or take dishes out of the cupboard. I found this pace, combined with the sweetness to their communal laying around instead of isolation in individual bedrooms with technology to occupy their minds, beautiful and inspiring - even if it is intended to show the ennui that eventually comes with being continually trapped indoors.

This brings me to the second point. I am surprised that Koreeda didn't show the kids showing any ill effects from being cooped up like that. They had no way to use their bodies in real physical activity, and no connection with nature, dirt, weather, or other animals. This would surely drive a person mad - yet these children remain sweet to each other and even creative.

The children seek nature and their own wild selves anyway, drawing pictures on whatever paper is available (such as an overdue water bill) and posting them all over the walls; and their one illicit outing led to their collecting precious seeds of "weeds", which they then carefully planted in leftover ramen containers to bloom an unkempt wildflower garden on their balcony. The film shows the poignant human yearning toward Beauty, no matter how dire the circumstances.

The oldest girl cannot accept that her mother has abandoned them, and scenes like her wistfully fingering a stain on the floor left by a spilled bit of nailpolish from their last time together just breaks your heart.

The oldest boy who's left in charge, played by the very deep Yuya Yagira, is much more pragmatic about facing the truth about their situation. He also exhibits a lot more maturity than the mother, taking on responsibility for his siblings and letting go of all his studies except math, in order to calculate their dwindling ability to deal with the household expenses. Although clearly out of his league in terms of the responsibility loaded onto him, he does what he can to keep them all fed, bathed, and happy; and to get money to achieve this, from seeking out several of their missing fathers to trying to get a job even though he's underage. Yet he refuses to sink low even in dire straits - (mild spoiler coming) - he won't steal food even to keep his new pals, and he won't accept money from another friend gained through means he disapproves of. His nobility of spirit is one of the shining forces that makes this film so compelling.

The kids rarely show any sort of emotion, another trait of this movie that I found odd, and wonder if it may be cultural. Even when confronted with death, there are no tears. This stoicism, exhibited even in the youngest, makes the few moments when subtle anger or despair do show all the more powerful. When a crisis strikes and the oldest boy tries desperately to contact his mother at a number where she's obviously gone off to form a new family, he gets told to wait so long that his payphone coins run out. He slowly puts the receiver down and collapses his forehead against the phone. This simple action conveys more bleak, aware despair than any wailing would.

The ending was initially unsatisfying to me because there really isn't one. You know darned well that these kids can't go on this way for very long, that something will have to give - the landlady will come back again for the unpayable rent and kick them out; they will be discovered; something. But on second thought, I realize that maybe this unsettling aspect is part of the film's genius. People live like this in cities all over the world, and this sort of situation does go on and on and on with no resolution.

If you want to know more about 'the real story' this film was based on, I found Wikipedia to provide the clearest and most concise source. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_four_abandoned_children_of_Sugamo). Reading it, one can see how the director deliberately changed the story to avoid an easy `good vs. evil' theme. He also chose to alter the storyline to eliminate the sort of blood-n-guts scenes so ubiquitous to American films. One can easily imagine how different this film would be if made in Hollywood, and appreciate even more the sensibility of the Japanese.

Simply Wonderous
This movie is going straight to my favorites. It definitely grabs at your heart strings. Overall the film is long, the story slow, so it's not for you extreme action fans. What really captured my attention is that from the way it's filmed, and the actors, it just feels so real.

I recommend giving it a try. As for the DVD itself, video quality is perfect, worked just great, shipment was fast (so fast in fact it surprised me), and it's affordable.

Slow but interesting
I remember reading about this in the newspaper for the interest it generated in the film festivals. After having seen it I can see some of the appeal. The kids are great actors and their struggle gets slowly worse as you see it unfold.

Devastating masterpiece
It is no surprise that the greatest contemporary movies no longer originate from the U.S. Perhaps it's because most American filmmakers play it safe using recycled characters and plots because they are trying to please the studios. It's about big business which is why so many films seem like they were made on an assembly line. They're cost-efficient (supposedly), predictable, and indistinguishable from each other.

That's why a quiet little masterpiece like director Kore-Eda Hirokazu's "Nobody Knows" could never be made in the United States. It would be too "risky" of an investment since there are no big stars. And the movie is preoccupied with the mundane tasks of everyday survival. There is no miraculous happy ending, nor are there any scenes loaded with special effects.

That is the reason that this movie is so powerful, even devastating. It is about the realities that everyone of us face- the daily struggle to provide adequate food and shelter for our families, to pay the bills, and to protect our loved ones from harm. In "Nobody Knows" these basic necessities become ever out of reach because they must be fulfilled by four young children with little or no help from adults.

The movie takes its time in documenting the almost unimaginable challenges that these innocent kids face because their parents have abandoned them. The adults that they do interact with are limited in the amount of help that they can offer. The movie is also a profound indictment of a rigidly structured and intolerant Japanese society where illegitimacy is treated as something so shameful that no one is supposed to know that illegitamite children even exist.

Director Hirokazu never preaches nor overdramatizes the children's plight. The children just do what they must do in order to survive. The film is replete with remarkable naturalist acting especially from the film's youngest performers. They seem real enough to be your next-door neighbors. And even in desperation, these brave children somehow manage to find simple joy and beauty in their harsh environment which makes their misfortunes almost unbearable to witness.

"Nobody Knows" is a masterpiece. It is a deliberately paced, contemplative study of the struggle to live when tragedy and hardship strike. And it's a movie that you will not soon forget.

To the poet Hirokazu Koreeda
An English haiku offered in tribute to the poetic film "Nobody Knows":

Irresponsibles
age all--light and bright suitcase
now heavy as death.